Effects of replacing pharmacological levels of dietary zinc oxide with lower dietary levels of various organic zinc sources for weanling pigs1,2

Abstract

Two 28-d randomized complete block design experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of concentrations and sources of Zn on growth performance of nursery pigs. Seven stations participated in Exp. 1, which evaluated the efficacy of replacing 2,500 ppm of Zn from ZnO with 125, 250, or 500 ppm of Zn from Zn methionine. A control diet with 125 ppm of supplemental Zn was included at all stations. A total of 615 pigs were used in 26 replicates. Average weaning age was 20.6 d and the average initial BW was 6.3 kg. There were no differences in any growth response among the three supplemental Zn methionine levels fed in Exp. 1. Zinc supplementation from Zn methionine improved ADG compared with the control during all phases (P < 0.05), due primarily to an increase in ADFI. Pigs fed 2,500 ppm of Zn from ZnO gained faster (P < 0.01) than those fed the control diet during all phases, and faster (P < 0.05) than those fed supplemental Zn from Zn methionine for the 28-d experiment. Differences in gain were again due mainly to differences in feed intake. A second experiment compared five sources of supplemental organic Zn (500 ppm of Zn) with 500 and 2,000 ppm supplemental Zn from ZnO and a control (140 ppm total Zn). Six stations used a total of 624 pigs, with an average weaning age of 20.4 d and averaging 6.2 kg BW in 15 replicates. Pigs fed 2,000 ppm of Zn from ZnO gained faster (P < 0.05) than pigs fed the control or any of the 500 ppm of Zn treatments (ZnO or organic Zn). Pigs fed the 2,000 ppm of Zn from ZnO also consumed more feed than those receiving 500 ppm of Zn from ZnO or from any of the organic Zn sources (P < 0.05). Organic sources of Zn did not improve gain, feed intake, or feed efficiency beyond that achieved with the control diet. Supplemental Zn at a concentration of 500 ppm, whether in the form of the oxide or in an organic form, was not as efficacious for improved ADG as 2,000 to 2,500 ppm of Zn from ZnO.

No Protective Effects of High-Dosage Dietary Zinc Oxide on Weaned Pigs Infected with Salmonella enterica Serovar Typhimurium DT104

“…Later, the piglets compensated for the growth differences, and beneficial effects of ZnO supplementation were no longer observed. The results obtained in this study were in agreement with those of other studies showing improvement in growth performance after weaned piglets were fed high doses of ZnO (7,25,26,27). In one of our previous studies with a similar feeding regime, improvement of performance caused by 2,500 mg Zn/kg as ZnO could be observed only within the 3rd week after weaning (unpublished data).…”

Dietary bacteriophages as an alternative for zinc oxide or organic acids to control diarrhoea and improve the performance of weanling piglets

“…Among various non-antibiotic alternatives, OA (Lambert and Stratford 1999;Suryanarayana et al 2012) and zinc sources (Hollis et al 2005) have been used previously. Further, BA have received increasing attention due to their natural antimicrobial properties and the lower propensity for the development of bacterial resistance (Gebru et al 2010;Wittebole et al 2014).…”

“…Zinc is an essential element and its recommended intake for growing pigs is 50-100 mg/kg dry matter (NRC 2012); however, higher levels of ZnO enhance growth rates and are well known to prevent or alleviate diarrhoea in young pigs and to improve growth performance (Carlson et al 1999;Hollis et al 2005), by mechanisms which are not well documented. High levels of ZnO were thus widely used in the pig industry but environmental concerns have forced the European Union to pass legislation to restrict the use of ZnO to a maximum of 150 mg/kg (European Community 2003) of feed, doi: 10.17221/7/2016-VETMED which is much less than the anti-diarrhoeal dosage (more than 2000 mg/kg).…”

In-Feed Use of Heavy Metal Micronutrients in U.S. Swine Production Systems and Its Role in Persistence of Multidrug-Resistant Salmonellae

“…Zinc is a cofactor of more than 300 metalloenzymes, including alkaline phosphatases, whereas copper is needed for activation of several oxidative enzymes required for normal cellular metabolism (10,11). Due to the proven and anticipated beneficial effects of zinc and copper in swine production, in-feed supplementation of zinc and copper in commercial production systems has been very common (12,13).…”